Things you like about America

It’s not Ireland

The scenery. Some of it is spectacular, and I was mainly in Florida which was mostly flat.

The theme parks, no-one does it like them.

NASA and the American science community in general, although that's under threat. They must have the most excitable science community in the world.

There's plenty to like about America, just not as much as there used to be, and with the way things are going, even less going forward.

I remember driving towards Tampa and seeing what looked like a hill in the distance but as we got closer and could see the buzzards hovering we realized that the only undulation in the otherwise flat floridean landscape was the city's massive garbage pile.

It's just more lazy over dependence on anglosphere content.

We cover the EU well but generally domestic stories from other EU member states rarely get a mention unless it's a natural disaster.

They don't have free speech. They are currently deporting people for protesting - permanent, legal residents. Their presidents current best buddy wants him to make boycotting his dated, ugly cars illegal. They force children to "pledge allegience" to a bit of cloth.

Their president is a sex offender.

I don't consider the blackberry a smartphone ,eg the iphone was the first smartphone with a hd graphical browser and internet access and a full hd color screen as far as I remember the android smartphone was developed soon after i.m not saying all tech products were invented or developed in America but American company's refined them and made them avaidable at a cheap price yes there are international standards body that propose tech specifications for new phones modems and 5g and future mobile phone standards for data transmission .

The blackberry had email and a limited amount of apps .the iphone was groundbreaking as anyone could make an app as long as they follow the app store rules .the iphone has a hd screen that made it possible to take hd photos and watch hd videos on YouTube . There's at least one good film releases every week and there's more programs than anyone could watch on streaming apps like Netflix and Disney paramount .Most of the apps we use are made in America . I don't consider low res monochrome phones with email access to be smartphones .I remember the time when if you wanted to use a phone on the move you had to get a phone installed in your car . 95 per cent of phones sold are android phones which are avaidable at a wide range of prices .

Of course trump seems to want to destroy everything good about America. Eg the national parks , the social security system , library's , colleges , by sacking 100,000 workers and making it hard to access any government services so there's no one left to enforce regulations that might protect consumers or protect the environment . Infrastructure services will be reduced the quality of life for the average person will fall .free speech is allowed as long as it's not anti Israel eg if you protest against genocide in Gaza you ,ll be labelled an antisemite . Of course there's a person problem with gun control the most commonly caused of death for teenagers is being shot by someone

I have close family in Georgia and Florida, so I've seen something of ordinary life in the US up-close, albeit characterised by the societal quirks of life south of the Mason-Dixon line.

And the vista is not great. If there exists an opposite to European style social democracy, thats what they have there. Yes, there is a strong charitable tradition evident, but really because there has to be, and sometimes for the boast within their communities.

The poor are often destitute, the sick often doomed. I'm no leftie in the Irish context, but much of social context in the American communities I know a bit about, horrifies me. And I think the hugely divided society that America now demonstrates, is a case of long overdue turkeys coming home to roost.

Some of the US is beautiful, especially the wildernesses, and I would love to visit Hawaii, but then the shoddy regard for the environment that you often find does burst that bubble somewhat.

There is very little to like about the USA of 2025.

So the "Things you like about America" thread has turned into people who probably don't like American telling us about how awful America is.

Well I had a good run at it over the decades and I struggle to think of one thing I miss about the USA.

Compared to priest infested ireland of my youth the US was freedom and opportunity, whereas now my young US relatives who have Irish passports are heading in the other way.

Africa might be a better choice if a good tan is what turns you on!

Full size pick up trucks and large SUV cars like the Chevy suburban or the Toyota Sequoia.
They’re savage, thirsty but savage.

Oldsmobile cars.

Semiconductors, all the tech we have today is because of semiconductors.

If people want to be pedantic about who developed what smartphone first, or who sent the first Internet message it doesn't really matter.

The US developed semiconductors and without them tech would not be where it is today.

The US is a world leader in innovation and technology, people need to get over that.

They handed over their lead there decades ago.

All modern lithography needs Dutch equipment (ASML). In previous generations the Japanese (Canon/Nikon - originally this was a business for camera lens companies) were competitive, but aren't anymore. There's nobody left in the US vaguely competitive - the last was SVG who got bought out 25 years ago.

The US was a world leader. It hasn't been for decades. They have one company very good at packaging and marketing things invented elsewhere (Apple)

One of the aspects that Trump and his minions have appeared to not have taken into consideration with their tariffs pissing of the world and it`s mother is tourism.

The U.S. economy gets $2.3 Trillion from tourism annually, around 3% of their GDP, and it supports 9.5 million jobs. The Canadians, the biggest source of international tourists to the U.S., are cancelling in droves and with these tariffs, and the very anti U.S. sentiment worldwide they are creating, I cannot see others not following the example of the Canadians.